Edna Apaka, ex-wife of local music legend

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

Edna Mae Blake Apaka fell in love in 1945 when she auditioned to sing with a band playing at Jimmy Walker's La Hula Rhumba Club, which used to be located on Alapa'i Street.

Blake, a Sacred Hearts Academy and Mills (Calif.) College graduate, got not only the job but also the man. She married Alfred Apaka, the band's leader, that year.

Apaka was a Hawaiian music legend who was "discovered" by Bob Hope and his wife in 1951.

The marriage ended with a divorce in the mid-1950s, but she clung to memories of the relationship's good times when she played party host to the likes of Mario Lanza and the Andrews Sisters, her son, Jeff Apaka, said.

"As the years went by, she lived for the past," Apaka said of his mother, who died in Honolulu early yesterday morning at age 80. "They were very meaningful years for her. Hawai'i moved at a slower pace then, and she treasured those days."

Her experiences as the wife of a Hawaiian music legend soured her on entertainment as a career. "Mother was wanting her husband home after that evening's show," Jeff Apaka said.

Alfred Apaka, who died in January 1960, developed a reputation, however, for a very active social life.

Edna Apaka was well known in the community and, at one time, had her own radio show.

In addition to her son, she is survived by a grandson.

Services will be held Friday at the Outrigger Canoe Club at 8 a.m. Her ashes will be scattered at sea.